528 THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



* 



TABLE OF VARIATIONS, ETC. Continued. 



Upper and lower parts of forearm 37 mm. 



Back of neck near occiput ... 50 ' 



Upper dorsal and mid-lumbar regions 50 



Middle part of forearm 62 



Middle of thigh 62 



Mid-cervical region 62 



Mid-dorsal region 62 



Weber, who has investigated thoroughly the subject of tactile 

 sensibility, says that in order to distinguish the two points of the 

 compasses as such, there must be unexcited nerve-endings between 

 the points of the skin that are touched by them, and the greater 

 the number of these, the more distinctly are they recognized as 

 being separate. Tactile sensibility is a function which can be 

 educated to a high degree. 



Case of Laura D. Bridgman. No better illustration could be 

 given of the degree of perfection to which this sense can be 

 brought than that of the deaf, dumb, and blind girl, Laura 

 Dewey Bridgman. When about two years old this child had scarlet 

 fever, as a result of which she lost the senses of sight, hearing, 

 taste, and smell. Although, about eleven years after, the sense of 

 smell returned to a slight degree, the other senses mentioned were 

 permanently absent. In describing her case, Prof. Musscy, Prof, 

 of Anatomy and Surgery at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., 

 where Laura lived, states that she possessed not merely " touch 

 proper," but the capacity for " acute " sensations, pleasant or pain- 

 ful ; the sensations of pressure, weight, temperature, and " mus- 

 cular sensations." 



In speaking of this girl, her instructor said : " With regard to 

 the sense of touch, it is very acute, even for a blind person. It 

 is shown remarkably in the readiness with which she distinguishes 

 persons. There are forty inmates in the female wing, with all of 

 whom, of course, Laura is acquainted ; whenever she is walking 

 through the passageways, she perceives by the jar of the floor or 

 the agitation of the air that some one is near her, and it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to pass her without being recognized. Her little 

 arms are stretched out, and the instant she grasps a hand, a sleeve, 

 or even a part of the dress, she knows the person, and lets them 

 pass on with some sign of recognition. Her judgment of dis- 

 tances and of relations of place is very accurate ; she will rise 

 from her seat, go straight toward a door, put out her hand just at 

 the right time, and grasp the handle with precision." 



From her Life and Education it is impossible to ascertain what 

 ability Laura possessed of distinguishing colors. Her historian 

 says that it has been stated that she could tell the color of every- 

 thing by feeling, but that this is not true. He further says that 

 fabulous stories have been told of the power of the blind to dis- 

 tinguish color, but such statements could not be made of those in 



